Snow pushers and pusher box blades of various configurations are presently known. They are typically characterized by one or more of the following: a relatively complex mounting arrangement, a steel blade as the snow scraper, a relatively light construction backed with ribs and angles, and poor performing fabricated high carbon alloy steel skid shoes.
Usually the heavy steel cutting or wear edges of pusher plow blades and fabricated pusher plow skid shoes are expendable and can be removable, e.g., with bolts, to the bottom of, for example, a plow mold board. As a pusher blade scrapes along the pavement or ground, it wears. The wear often is uneven, and the blades and skid shoes sometimes break during plowing. All of this maintenance and the associated down time are costly.
The pusher blade on typical snow pushers are subjected to extensive vibration, impact, and abrasive action, resulting from the scraping action between the cutting edge of the blade and the road bed over which the machine travels. As a result, the blade edge and the skid shoes wear and chip due to the abrasion and impact and must be replaced frequently. This is a costly proposition because of the downtime of the associated machine and cost expended in man power and materials to make a blade changeover. Present configurations for the skid surfaces of a pusher box plow generally entail a single fabricated wear shoe running the complete fore and aft length of opposing side walls of the pusher plow. These known prior art devices are relatively bulky, expensive to manufacture and replace, and difficult to install on the pusher plow side walls.
Thus, there has been a need for an improved means which supports the pusher blade from the road bed or parking lot road surface therebelow for reducing or dampening the undesirable vibrating, impact, and abrasive action on the blade. In particular, there has been a need for an improved modular grouping of a plurality of individual independently movable and independently replaceable skid shoes that maintain sliding contact with the ground surface therebelow. The plurality of skid shoes can comprise replaceable cast steel wear parts.
Objects of this invention are to provide skid shoes comprising replaceable cast steel wear parts. Further objectives include the skid shoes being modular and independently mounted to the snow pusher box including independent contact with the ground surface. The skid shoe can include a hardened wear surface (i.e. carbide matrix weldment) in contact with ground surface as the snow pusher is pushed along the ground surface. The present invention also incorporates a plurality of individual independently mountable and/or pivotable skid shoes including individual independent, self-leveling, replaceable, rotatable, and/or reversible skid shoes.